Can OTWA survive if no one really contributes?

[sadie999]

OTWA Cookbook Cancelled (http://www.otwa.com/community/showthread.php?t=33084)

Maison Rustique:

Due to a serious lack of participation, the OTWA cookbook project has been cancelled.

Thanks to those of you who did take the time to enter the contests and send recipes.

Perhaps there will be a better time later and we can pursue it then.

larruone:

Lack of participation means that in about 5 days,

less than 50 recipes were submitted....

By less than 15 people.



OTWA starves.

I'm one who didn't participate, so I'm not pointing fingers. Just reporting the news.

Peace.

[larruone]

I shall vent here instead of there.

As a member of the Cook Book committee, I am sad and disgusted
with the APATHY shown by the committee itself when it came
to promoting participation.

There was none, and there was essentially no response to
ideas submitted.

Contests... 300 second idea... celebrity autograph copies...

I think the members thought there would be a rush to the door...
But when it came to having to WORK to make it a success....

Wasn't happening.

A fantastic idea, with great potential, wasted.

Seems my offer to help absorb initial costs was forgotten too.

To those members reading this, I AM disappointed. Some were
quite supportive of pushing the book, others not so.

PAH

[sadie999]

Volunteers are sometimes very hard to coordinate. I'd rather manage a department of 20 paid workers than try to coordinate five volunteers. While most are very positive minded, for many people, the volunteer work/job is at the end of their priority lists. It doesn't generate revenue for them, and it cuts into family time.

I know that Deb does a newsletter offline for which she doesn't get paid, and so for her, volunteering is a committed action. She may very well be the exception.

I'll give you another example. Finding myself away from family and friends one Thanksgiving, I called a shelter to see if they needed help dishing out dinner. Nope, full up - but the frazzled worker to whom I spoke indicated that for most of the year they could barely scare up help. It gave me some more insight into the average volunteer (including myself because I never think to call the shelters to see if they need help in July).

I have no real point here except as stated in my first sentence. People aren't bad, they just only have a tendency to move when things are about to fall apart.

Peace.

[Emily]

Unfortunately - for whatever reason - that is the way the world has been turning. Living in a town where there was always someone willing to volunteer for any office, committee, fundraiser, or other event, I have seen a marked drop everywhere in the last 5 years.

At our preschool we have a 10 hour per family requirement in addition to tuition - it can be used working at a fundraiser, helping in the classroom, building maintenance, shopping, laundry, being on the board, and a million other things...parents used to gleefully put in the 10 hours and more to show their support for the kids and the school. Now it is like pulling teeth to get any help for anything and more and more parents are paying the penalty for not putting in any hours.

That is just one personal example, but everywhere I look the same sort of thing is happening. And it's like a domino effect - now I'm starting to feel apathetic about "helping" anywhere and have been saying "no" more often than ever. I guess I'm finding fewer and fewer things worth fighting for...

[saabsister]

I thought that apathy towards volunteer work might be a "big city" issue and am surprised to hear that your school has such trouble finding volunteers, Emily. The commutes around here are killers. After spending an hour in traffic most of us don't want to go back out in the evenings to volunteer.

Also, I've found that it's hard to get more than a few people in any club or organization to do more than minimal work. The same group gets stuck with the majority of work, burns out, and quits volunteering.

[StrayStar]

Maybe if it wasn't smack-dab in the middle of the summer.

[Meya]

Larruone, why not post your thoughts on OTWA as well? There are many folks who won't read here, and unless someone C&P's what you said, they'll be missing part of the story.

[toke]

I was doing my best to get some recipes together...what with timeouts for life and business and insignificant stuff like that. Now I find the deadline for recipes wasn't the real thing and that the folks in charge have given up. Okay.

[Kate]

Hi:
I am a newbie here, from OTWA. I was on the committee for the cookbook and I was working very hard to input the recipes that Larry sent me and to provide some of my own. I was also set up to do the accounting for the project and that was going to be a busy chore too.

I was never involved in a project like this before and took instruction from those with more experience in assembling a cookbook. I felt very bad about the cancellation and wished they might have had a change of heart and tried again, but apparently that was not to be.

I hope I won't be an outcast here due to my involvement in the cook book project.

:irollers2

[rossshow]

Welcome, Kate, to The Ross Show

I hope I won't be an outcast here

Highly doubtful that that alone would cause you to be outcast. In general the rule here is: All are Welcome, Friend or Foe.

[rossshow]

3 pages now


http://www.otwa.com/community/showthread.php?t=33084&page=3&pp=15

[Maison Rustique]

Waving to Kate. :1neko:

Ross do I get extra credit for leaving a trail:1neko4: for Kate to follow here?:1micio1:

[george]

hey , speaking of otwa has anyone else had emails about forgoting password requests when they haven asked for it??

[Maison Rustique]

george, I haven't. That sounds rather suspicious. Have you contacted Jim?

[george]

heres the email i got, it does say if its in error ignore soooo i thought it was something that just happens

This email is being sent as you requested your access information
on http://www.otwa.com/ocm/, please refer to
the following information:

Login : george
Password :illhavesexwithyouforfree
Login url : http://www.otwa.com/ocm/index.php?page=login

If you did not request this information, you may ignore this email.

Best regards,

Online Traders Web Alliance
http://www.otwa.com/ocm/


ref:OTWA.lostpwd

[Kate]

Thanks for the Welcome.

[rossshow]

George. You nut!

[rossshow]

Kate! Cute avatar!

[rossshow]

LOL! Deb! Thanks for the refferal!

[george]

buh ha and my paypal password is geesthisisthelasttimeillpay

i still wonder who wanted to log on otwa as me??

[Heartland]

Wasn't me, George.

Welcome, Kate!

Stray Star does have a point. If something like this were done in the fall, or right after Christmas, people might have more free time to work on it.

I also agree it's hard to get anything done with volunteers. I've been the reunion committee chairperson for the last two high school reunions I've had, and it's like pulling teeth to get people to do what they've promised to do. I was also shocked the last time at the number of people who didn't respond to the invitations until after the deadline. We're not kids anymore, you'd think people would be more responsible. But no.

[Maison Rustique]

I'm really tired of this entire subject but I do want to say one thing. I've seen many post that the timing was bad--school, summer, yada yada--we shoulda waited. We didn't pick the timing--OTWA needs funds NOW. Not next year. Hasn't that occurred to anyone?

[Heartland]

Sorry Deb. I don't go to OTWA much, usually only when someone posts a link here. I know you're tired of the subject, but are there any others that would want to pick up where the others left off? It sounds like at least a couple of the volunteers want to keep going.

[Maison Rustique]

Sandy, I don't know. I keep seeing people say that they'll do such and such. I posted twice that I'd be happy to pass on information to whomever would like to take it over. Haven't heard from a soul.

[Heartland]

I nearly called off our last reunion because of the apathy, but everyone came through at the last minute. I hope something like that happens for you all, but even if it doesn't, you gave it a good shot.

[Powerhouse]

Deb, just kicking an idea in here, but could it have been more successful if you adopted a more modern format for the project? I mean - it really costs next to nothing to 'publish' the OTWA Cookbook on CD's. You could do it from any computer with a CDRW drive. Startup costs would be - what - 15 bucks or so for the blank CD's and another $7 for a cd label maker program. :)

If the cookbook was big you could use a word search to find the recipes you want faster and people could just print out the one they wanted to use to make dinner that night - also a lot easier to store.

[Maison Rustique]

Mike, that's been discussed a couple of times. There's a handful of people who want that. Most of us want a real book. And if you're buying for gifts, the CDs don't work many times--too many people without PCs.

Speaking for myself, I want a book to lay on the kitchen counter and to put on the bookshelves with my other 400 or so cookbooks. Lots of us are collectors. :)

[Powerhouse]

Ok. :)


(Shoot - thought I'd had an original idea to offer too! :( )

[Maison Rustique]

Keep thinking--there might still be something out there that we/I haven't thought of. ;)

[evilanggellene]

Has anyone priced what it might cost to have some place like Office Depot print and spiral bind them?

Another cheapo route...someone could type up the pages, set up the layout, run off front and back 8 1/2 by 11" pages on self serve copiers and do it in that size format. Design a cover and put it on heavier bond paper. Then have Office Depot or some other Office place do the plastic binder. I know our office depot used to let you use the binder for free but you had to buy the plastic thingies.

Just an idea

[tekobari]

I think the day of the volunteer is pretty much over. Most volunteers have always been women. Even at the AIDS Foundation here, when most of the patients were men (at that time), the majority of the volunteers were women, I guess because many were stay-at-home mothers. Now most women have at least part-time jobs, have houses to run, sick parents to take care of, etc. Squeezing in volunteer work is just too difficult when you're worn out. Coordinating volunteers in real life is hard enough. Doing it through emails and on line must be a whole lot harder.

It's a real shame it hasn't worked (yet), but as Sandy says, maybe people will come together in the end.

[FLvamp]

Just my 2 lincolns ... I wanted a book with pages as well to have open on the kitchen counter + as a collector item. ;)